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Outdoor Education
LEARNING PROGRAMME: OUTDOOR EDUCATION
The Outdoor Education programme is a powerful part of the UWCSEA experience, providing students across the school with opportunities to develop the UWCSEA Learner Profile qualities of resilience, commitment to care, self management, communication and collaboration.
While the demands of response to the pandemic have necessarily disrupted the travel to individual destinations and delivery of the programme in overseas destinations, the Outdoor Education programme continued in 2020/2021. The College’s commitment to the provision of an exceptional Outdoor Education programme by employing a team of full time specialist staff meant that the College was well-resourced to plan an extensive hyper-local programme in collaboration with curriculum leaders. Through a process of strategic planning with members of the curriculum teams across the school sections, synergies between the Outdoor Education curriculum and other elements of the learning programme were strengthened. In keeping with the Colleges approach to place-based learning, this also provided opportunities to identify where better use could be made of existing campus facilities and equipment, and of Singapore-based locations. Staff across the Outdoor Education team, together with educational leaders and teachers worked tirelessly to provide students in Primary and Middle School with alternative campus- and Singapore- based programmes. These were carefully designed to deliver the learning outcomes identified in the UWCSEA Outdoor Education curriculum, developed in line with the intentional foundation of the four K-12 standards defined by our written outdoor education curriculum. The four standards are: 1. Personal Identity 2. Healthy relationships 3. Connectedness to Nature 4. Expedition skills
OPERATIONAL RESPONSE: BESPOKE PRIMARY PROGRAMME
While camping overnight remained outside of the safe management measures required in response to COVID-19, all Junior School students were immersed in a bespoke ‘Camp on Campus’ programme, designed and run by the Outdoor Education Specialist educators in conjunction with classroom teachers and other staff. The programmes provided students ways to access the four intended learning outcomes of the outdoor education curriculum, as they engaged in many activities that would have taken place on the more traditional expeditions of pre-COVID. In safely distanced groups, students had the opportunity to build shelters, learn about water filtration and edible plants, explore areas of campus previously unfamiliar through wayfinding activities, and to learn outdoor skills such as fire making and camp cooking.
While Outdoor Education may have been one of the elements of the UWCSEA learning programme most impacted by enforced operational changes, the pandemic has provided an opportunity for the College’s team of Outdoor Education professionals to focus on creating greater links to the other elements of the learning programme, and to explore creatively the opportunities for learning available on our own campuses, and within Singapore. In the 2020/2021 year, the team continued to develop ways in which students could meaningfully access the learning goals of the Outdoor Education element of our learning programme in Singapore and on-campus contexts. This was a natural extension of some of the work already underway, which focused on creating greater integration across the elements of the learning programme, better utilising or enhancing the existing campus facilities and equipment, and to creating meaningful alternatives to regional travel should environmental conditions, such as haze, require alternative plans to be enacted. For the Primary School, this meant a series of ‘Outdoor Education’ weeks, where classes were immersed in a series of on-campus activities which mirrored many of the experiences and learning opportunities that they would have had on their overnight expeditions. Similarly the Middle School programmes designed by the Outdoor Education team began to extend student learning by using and enhancing facilities already on campus, and creating opportunities to explore less well known areas of Singapore. On East Campus, abseiling equipment were installed in the Infant School stairwell, and after extensive testing and safety certification, Grade 8 students were able to have a day of experiences on campus even as their off-campus activities were curtailed due to newly introduced safe distancing measures at the end of Term 3. New partnerships and locations within Singapore were also explored, such as the Green Corridor walks and Ground Up Initiative, allowing the College to create further opportunities to extend student learning in place. The Foundation IB programme expedition became an on-campus week of team building and exploration with some Outdoor Education skills-based learning. Our case study in this section describes this programme, which, with two years of data in the longitudinal outdoor education study now collected, shows a positive effect on student wellbeing and learning outcomes.
UWCSEA STORIES
Outdoor Education
in action
The opportunities for learning in the Outdoor Education programme bring learning beyond the classroom, by immersing students in experiential challenges that build resilience, collaboration, communication and leadership. These, together with the important opportunities to connect to nature and learn more about the interconnectedness of the environment in which our students live and learn.
Students joining the College in Grade 10 for the Foundation IB course have always had an expedition focused on outdoor challenges and service learning scheduled early in their time at the College. The timing provides this small cohort of incoming High School students with an opportunity to get to know each other, to build relationships and connections that will support them while settling into the wider High School and to give them understanding and first hand experience of the UWCSEA learning programme.
IMMERSION ON CAMPUS
The FIB programme and dedicated expedition, which sees the campus-based cohort brought together at the start of the school year, has always been designed as a way to immerse our new Grade 10 students in the UWC ethos from day one of their time at UWCSEA. As a result, the five days of the bespoke hyper-local FIB programme were themed around creating connection to: 1. each other and the UWCSEA Learner Profile 2. the UWC mission 3. UWCSEA and the school community 4. nature 5. Singapore In 2020/2021, the FIB adventure week was no different, taking place in mid September, with a week of off-timetable activities and challenges designed to immerse students in the UWC spirit. Fittingly, the week started on UWC Day for our 2020 cohort, as they were welcomed to campus for a day of team building challenges - all in safe-distanced groups. Students took part in ‘microadventures’ on campus, reflective activities such as creating ephemeral art with found objects, and team building activities such as rock climbing. Later in the week, students were engaged in further outdoor education skill building, including crate stacking in the Main Hall on East Campus and the High Ropes course on Dover Campus. A popular part of the programme were the kayaking experiences swimming pools using the fleet of single person kayaks. While students learned the basics of kayaking, they also participated in games and individual challenges designed to strengthen both water skills, teamwork and connection.
Other team-building activities throughout the week included treasure hunts, gardening, cooking and overnight homework aligned with the UWC mission, such as bringing in plant based packed lunches with no single-use plastic. These activities were designed to equip students with skills, and to provide them with greater understanding of the skills and qualities of the UWCSEA Learner Profile.
Importantly, students were also focused on UWCSEA’s mission for peace and a sustainable future through activities which helped them to understand the UN sustainable development goals and the systems in which they operate. This was designed to provide students with a way of gaining greater depth of understanding in the links they would find in the academic curriculum later in the year. For example, the final FIB Science unit on East Campus challenges students to act as a consultant for a ‘teacher-client’ looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Students interview a client, and then research and present their recommendations through a range of different media, highlighting lifestyle adjustments so as to reduce their clients carbon footprint based on their individual needs.
